Re: Can you hear sound after your eardrum is busted?

An eardrum is similar to an actual drum.  This is why the eardrum has the 
name "eardrum".  Just like with a real drum, a small hole in the membrane 
will not affect things very much.  A larger hole will make the eardrum (or 
the real drum) not function at all.  The purpose of the eardrum is to pick 
up sound waves in the air and conduct them to our inner ear where the nerves 
of hearing are located. So, an ear drum with a large hole in it will not 
conduct the sound waves to the inner ear.  However, a hole in the eardrum 
does not affect the inner ear so the inner ear will still work.

Can sound waves get to the inner ear another way, without going through the 
eardum? Yes. The inner ear is located in the skull so sounds that are loud 
enough to vibrate the skull will vibrate the inner ear and allow us to hear 
even though the eardrum may not be working.  This is called bone conduction 
because the sound is conducted through the bones of the skull. If you hold 
your head against a piano, you can hear the piano sounds because the 
vibrations from the piano are transmitted directly to your skull and then to 
your inner ear.

When Beethoven started having hearing problems, he likely had large holes in 
his eardrums and therefore he could not hear the piano sounds the usual way.  
To get around this problem, it is reported that he held a short piece of a 
wooden broom handle between his teeth and held the other end of the broom 
handle against the piano.  This allowed the sound from the vibrating strings 
in the piano to be transmitted to the broom handle and then to his teeth 
which are rigidly connected to the skull and then through the skull to the 
inner ear.

An eardrum with a hole in it can be repaired. If the hole is small enough, 
the eardrum can repair itself.  If the hole is larger, a physician can place 
special paper across the hole which allows the ear to grow back together. In 
severe cases, the entire eardrum can be transplanted from a donor.